e-mark & Other Legislation
What the "e-mark" is, and why it is a legal requirement
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There is a vast amount of electronics present in modern cars, controlling everything from the cabin temperature to more safety critical devices such as anti-lock braking systems. Vehicle manufacturers go to great lengths to ensure that all these electronic components operate correctly and do not interfere with one another. After all, if the electronics controlling a car’s braking system were to be compromised by interference from another electronic component, then the results could be catastrophic. |
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In order to prevent potentially dangerous equipment from being installed into a vehicle, UK and EU law requires that all aftermarket equipment designed for automotive use needs to have been awarded something known as an "e-mark". All electronic equipment emits some level of electromagnetic radiation, but products carrying the e-mark have been thoroughly tested to ensure that these radiated emissions are below a certain threshold, and are therefore not significant enough to interfere with the vehicle's electronics.
The e-mark is an EU-wide piece of legislation, and an equivalent United Nations standard known as the "E-mark" is applied in non-EU countries. In the UK, Section 60 of the Road Traffic Construction and Use regulations makes it a criminal offence to use a vehicle that has a non e-marked product fitted.
The UK body responsible for regulating e-marking is the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA), which is part of the Department for Transport. All our standard computers (as detailed on our hardware page) have been awarded an e-mark, which means that they have been tested by a VCA-approved testing facility to ensure that they will not compromise your vehicle’s safety.
Our e-mark number is e11 034687, which can be verified by contacting the VCA. We will be happy to provide a copy of our e-mark certificate upon request.
Although we provide a wide range of computers as standard, all of which are e-marked, we realise that some customers have special requirements that require us to modify our computers. Even if this modification is very small, it may mean that the modified product will need to go through the e-mark testing process again, to ensure that the modification has not increased the device’s radiated emissions to an unacceptable level. In such cases we can re-submit the modified product for approval, to ensure that your car computer can be installed into a vehicle without breaking the law.
Further information is available on the VCA website, at www.vca.gov.uk
CE MarkingIn addition to carrying e-mark certification, all our computers are CE marked. |
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Ensuring that the driver is not distracted
Section 109 of the Road Traffic Construction and Use Regulations clearly states what information can legally be displayed on a screen that is within the driver’s field of vision in a moving vehicle. All our fully installed systems apart from the Lite package include the Centrafuse software interface, which provides a touchscreen friendly user interface. Centrafuse comprises many modules that perform different functions, examples of which are the navigation module, the hands-free phone module and the DVD player. When the vehicle starts moving, any modules that could cause distracting or illegal information to be displayed on the driver’s screen are automatically disabled. Using the examples above, the DVD module would be disabled but the navigation and hands-free modules would not, as these are both legitimate uses of a driver-visible display.
In addition, Centrafuse is automatically activated whenever the vehicle starts moving, so that it completely blocks the Windows desktop and any other running programs, and can only be minimised again when the vehicle is stationary.
For fully installed systems that do not include Centrafuse we can use other means to ensure that the system remains completely legal.
